Kandi Burruss is giving back to the community she grew up in.
On July 30, the entrepreneur and entertainer hosted a back-to-school giveaway for over 500 students in East Point, Georgia, sponsored by her foundation, Kandi Cares and Goodr, Nouveaux and Garner law firm.
After the event, Burruss spoke to rolling out about her foundation and giving back.
How was today’s event?
We just wrapped up our Kandi Cares back-to-school drive, we gave [away] more than 500 bookbags. … full of school supplies and snack bags for the kids so that they’ll be ready to go back to school and have everything they need.
Why do you need to give to students before they go back to school?
It’s very important, because, going back to school can be a tough time. Parents have to pay for new school clothes, haircuts, get the kids’ hair done, and school supplies on top of all the bills, everything people are having to pay with inflation, and everything that’s going on. That’s just another thing for somebody because money is tight. People don’t have money like that, so we’re trying to do what we can to help the community and help people who may not have that village to help them. Kandi Cares is that village.
What’s your favorite part about this particular event?
My favorite part is seeing the people that need help, and being out here for them. Seeing the people, being excited, and just saying, “Hey, thank you.” Sometimes, for me, it’s being excited to some of the people that we’ve helped in the past. They come back and they’re like, they want to volunteer, too, because they’re like, “You helped me at a time that I really needed and I want to help other people.” So it’s always great when you can see people that want to pay it forward, that’s awesome.
How can people help the Kandi Cares organization?
Well, if you would like to volunteer with Kandi Cares, you can learn more about our organization just by going to kandicares.org.
What do you all have coming up?
Every year, we also do our Thanksgiving give back … we give out truck loads of food, everything you could possibly need for your Thanksgiving meal. We do our holiday giveaway … every year and we give truckloads full of toys.
Throughout the year, we pick multiple families we help with scholarships. We have a few families we’ve already picked to help them for this coming semester for college and school programs. At the top of the year, we did this last year where we picked a few families that we are going to pay their rent for the whole year. So last year, it was like four or five families we did where we paid their rents for the whole year.
